A normal user's look into the world of 3D Stereo Technologies

Pic3D is another product in the form of a thin plastic sheet that you can attach to a 2D display to make it able to display stereoscopic 3D content without any hardware modification or additional hardware (no 3D glasses are required), you will of course need a special software player to be able to play the content in 3D. Pic3D has been developed by a Japanese company called Global Wave and although it has been announced a while ago, it is still only available on the Japanese market only. Pic3D comes in the form of lenticular sheets for different devices and screen sizes that when applied turns ordinary 2D displays into autostereoscopic 3D ones. Currently the Pic3D supports only for playback of 3D movies, and although the software players accept Side by Side input, the output of the device is neither row or column interleaved, but the lines are actually kind of angled in order not to have that much noticeable loss of resolution and detail in 3D mode, but more about that in a bit…

Pic3D is available for all more recent Apple mobile devices such as the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S (available for 2100 Yen or about $27 USD), iPod touch4G (available for 2100 Yen or about $27 USD) and the iPad 2 (available for 4725 Yen or about $61 USD). There is a free player application available for these devices on the AppStore, actually there are two – Pic3D and Pic3D II (pictured above) with the second one probably being with more intuitive and easier for use interface if you are not Japanese. The player application supports playback of Side by Side 3D videos only either available locally or from YouTube 3D video library, unfortunately there is no support for 3D photo playback and currently you will not be able to use the Pic3D with any game for the iOS.

The Pic3D is also available for some laptops as well as for desktop monitors. The mobile computer versions are designed for laptops with a screen size of 12.1-inches and resolution of 1280×800 pixels (available for 4725 Yen or about $61 USD) as well as for 15.6-inch laptops with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels (available for 6300 Yen or about $81 USD). The models for desktop monitors are intended for 21.5-inch Full HD displays and for 23-inch Full HD displays with a prices of 14700 Yen and 15750 Yen respectively or about $190 USD and $203 USD which is already quite a bit expensive. There are actually 3D monitors that you can buy for that much, although not autostereoscopic 3D ones, but still 3D-capable using passive 3D glasses. On the image above you can see a sample output from a Side by Side 3D video being played with the PC version of the video player that you need to use with the Pic3D attached to your screen. The video player for Windows can also benefit from some improvements in the interface and getting video controls while playing back the content, I’ve also noticed that it does consume quite a lot of system memory when playing back 3D videos.

Pic3D’s approach is a bit different as compared to some of the other similar products, although their product is in the form of a thin plastic foil, it does not completely stick to the display of the device, so you can easily remove and reattach it when you want to. The company also claims that through their filter the 2D image displayed on the screen will be left unaffected, so even with the filter applied the display should be quite useable when playing back normal 2D content. Pic3D also promises higher brightness, so after being applied it should reduce the maximum level of brightness of the device by just about 10% and is supposed to provide wide viewing angles of up to 120 degrees, so it does sound really promising. There are however some limitations that you should also be well aware of…

You should know that on mobile devices such as the iPhone or iPad, where you can easily rotate the screen you will not be able to use the 3D mode in all orientations, it will be available only in the landscape mode (the player locks it in when started). The same also applies for the versions of the product for laptops and desktop monitors, but there you are not very likely to rotate the monitor anyway, so it isn’t that much of a limitation for them as for the mobile devices. Furthermore there is no support for playing back of 3D photos using the Pic3D for the moment and you are also not able to play games in stereo 3D mode. Due to the non standard image input for 3D that the Pic3D screen filter uses you are not able to feed it with such output from an application such as iZ3D or DDD TriDef 3D in order to play your favorite games in stereo 3D mode for example. Maybe the developers of the product will do something about the current limitation of only being able to play Side by Side 3D videos using their product, but for now this is not making their product way too attractive for anything other than maybe Apple’s mobile devices. Still and interesting product to watch, especially if/when it also becomes available outside of Japan as well…

Radiant Star, the company that made the 3Dfier 2D to 3D converting DirectShow filter, is now preparing a new interesting product called 3Dfier Viewer. It is a simple and affordable accessory that should allow you to watch stereoscopic 3D photos and videos in 3D on your Apple iPhone 4/4S or iPod Touch 4th generation (although it might work well with other mobile devices as well). The 3Dfier Viewer is essentially a cardboard box with two sets of different lenses and open sides, foldable and lightweight for easy transportation, so what you do is essentially put the device inside and watch the screen through the lenses holding the 3Dfier Viewer close to your eyes. It has two functions to allow you to watch stereoscopic 3D content displayed in Side by Side format on the display of your Apple mobile device (the dual lens side) or to magnify the image displayed on the screen of the mobile device (apparently also separating colors in different planes creating somewhat of depth feeling). The device sounds quite promising, especially considering the fact that the suggested retail price of the 3Dfier Viewer should be less than $10, and of course I’ll be trying these adapters as I just got some for testing, so expect some feedback very soon.

SpatialView has launched their 3DeeCentral library of free and paid stereoscopic 3D content for 3D PC, mobile and internet connected devices. The content they offer is in the form of 3D photos and 3D videos and it should include the following genres: adventure, animation, music videos, nature, travel, sports and science fiction, although at the moment it is still quite limited and does not cover all of these. 3DeeCentral is accessible either through a 3DeeCentral application for iPhone/iPod, but in order to be able to watch 3D on your iOS device you also need a special accessory or through a client software for Windows 7-based PCs that is equipped with Nvidia’s 3D Vision, passive polarized display or together with a pair of simple anaglyph glasses.

For the owners of iPhone 3GS and 3-rd gen iPod, SpatialView is offering for a limited time only, a free 3DeeSlide when you first log in to 3DeeCentral, after you confirm (activate) your account. Otherwise you will have to purchase the 3DeeSlide accessory for your iOS device for $9.99 USD. Note that the iPhone 3G, iPod touch 2nd generation and all older devices are not supported and will not be supported in the future too. Support for the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation will be announced at a later date. Spatial View is currently working to develop a glasses free 3D Stereo solution for the iPad.

If you want to try the 3DeeCentral on your computer, then you must have Windows 7 operating system as the application will not work on older Vista or XP OSes, it doesn’t matter if your Windows 7 is 32 or 64-bit as they are both supported. After downloading and installing the application (it also installs the Xvid codec) you will have to register a free account and then you are ready to start browsing the 3D photo and 3D Video library that 3DeeCentral offers. The Windows version of the software for accessing the 3DeeCentral supports viewing of the 3D content for users that have 3D Vision, passive polarized solutions or red-cyan anaglyph glasses on a normal display. The software comes with a special player developed by SpatialView that should play the content you’ve downloaded, although I had some trouble running the software to actually play the free images and videos I’ve downloaded to test, but you might have more luck than me.

At the moment the 3DeeCentral has 43 3D videos in total out of which 9 are free for download and the prices for the paid content is between $0.99 and $4.99$ USD with the videos being mostly animation and documentary. The 3D image packs you have access to at the momenta are 6 in total out of which only 1 is free for download, for the paid packs you’ll have to be ready to pay between $0.99 and $2.99 USD. You should start by downloading the free 3D content, before actually deciding if everything is working fine for you and if you’d want to pay for other content if everything works Ok. SpatialView is looking for 3D content creators that are willing to be able to sell their 3D content to end users through their platform, so if you making good quality 3D videos and 3D photos and are interested, then you can contact them.